Acid Reflux Esophagus

Gastroesophageal reflux, which most people refer to as acid reflux, is a condition where the liquids in the stomach regurgitate or back up into the esophagus. Acid Reflux Esophagus problems tend to develop because the refluxed liquid can inflame and harm the lining of the esophagus. The inflammation of the esophagus lining is called esophagitis.

 

The regurgitated liquids include acid and pepsin that the stomach produces. Pepsin is an enzyme that starts the stomach’s digestion of proteins. Acid reflux liquids can also contain bile that backed up from the duodenum into the stomach.

 

The acid is probably the most damaging component of the reflux liquid. Pepsin and bile can also cause acid reflux esophagus injury, but their roles in causing esophageal inflammation and damage are not as clear as that of acid.

 

Being afflicted with acid reflux is a chronic condition. Once it has begun, it will usually be a lifelong concern. Furthermore, after acid reflux esophagus injury has been treated but the treatment is halted for some reason, the injury can return in many sufferers, within just a few months. Therefore, treatment for acid reflux, once started, will typically need to be continued for an indefinite length of time. Some have argued that for those sufferers who have intermittent symptoms and no acid reflux esophagus injury, treatment could also be intermittent and only administered while the sufferer is undergoing his or her symptomatic periods.

 

Regurgitation of stomach liquids into the esophagus actually does occur in plenty of normal individuals. A study found that acid reflux happens as often to normal people as it does to people with gastroesophageal reflux disease. In people with the disease, however, the refluxed liquids contain acid more frequently, and the acid stays in the esophagus longer. The liquids’ acid reflux esophagus level is also evidently higher in people with gastroesophageal reflux disease than in normal people.

 

The body has mechanisms for protecting itself from acid reflux esophagus damage. For instance, most reflux happens during the day, when people are upright rather than horizontal. When people are upright, refluxed liquid is more likely to flow back down to the stomach, where it originated, because of the effect of gravity.

 

Another one of the body’s mechanisms against acid reflux esophagus damage is that people repeatedly swallow while they are awake, whether they have reflux or not. Every time they swallow, refluxed liquid is carried back into the stomach.

 

Finally, the mouth’s salivary glands produce saliva, which happens to contain bicarbonate. Every time a person swallows, bicarbonate in saliva travels down the esophagus and neutralizes the acid that remains in the esophagus after gravity and swallowing remove most of the refluxed liquid.